Ash-truck



c. E. LE PAGE.

ASH TRUCK.

APPLICATION HLED MAY 9,1918.

Patented June 22, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

C. E. LE PAGE.

ASH TRUCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9, 1918.

Patented June 22, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

MQ m6 m C. E. LE PAGE.

ASH TRUCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAYQ, 1918.

1,344,047. Patented June 22, 1920.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

5] PLUM Wow g h Cfiar/es E Le/ 09e,

UNITED STATES CHARLES E. LE PAGE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW" YORK.

ASH-TRUCK.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented J 22, 1920 Application filed May 9, 1918. Serial No. 283,500.

To all whom'z't may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. Ln PAGE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn in the county of Kings and State of New ork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ash-Trucks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the 1nvention, such as will enable others skilled 1n the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

' This invention relates to self-propelled vehicles used in collecting and removing refuse, and more particularly to ash trucks.

It has for an object to rovide a selfcontained structure for driving the vehicle, dumping collected ashes or refuse into a receiving body, and means for dumping the bod A further object is the provision of an elevator which may be constantly driven for collecting the ashes or refuse from a hopper and depositing the same into the vehicle body to produce a saving in manual labor over the use of the present type of truck.

Furtherobjects will be apparent from the following-specification, appended claims and drawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of an ash truck constructed in accordance with this invention,

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of portions of the frame showing the superstructure, and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the driving shafts and gears.

In describing this invention, the features may be more readily appreciated by comparing this type of structure with the present type of self-loading and dumping auto trucks. A crew of four or five' operators serve at present to accomplish the purpose of this invention; Two of the operators lift the heavy cans of ashes to rest upon the side of the body of the vehicle and an additional one or. two operators in the body of the vehicle are necessary to dump the ashes. With my invention one man can dump a can of ashes in a hopper which is disposed at a low andconvenient elevation with respect to the sidewalk so that the ashes may be elevated mechanically and deposited in the intended receptacle without creating clouds of dust or having the wind blow the lighter particles such as newspapers from the body.

shaft 14 passes. The body is wider than the frame 10 so that extensions thereof overlie the wheels 12 and are offset sufliciently to receive refuse from elevators carried at the sides of the frame 10.

This body is provided with a removable cover 17 which may be of any desired shape and which will preferably be provided with a side opening 18 and closure therefor 19 through which a spreading tool may be inserted when it is desired to uniformly distribute the load within the body. The cover 17 has its forward end in arcuate formation with the shaft 1 1 and the axis so that this body may be dumped without; interfering with any of the remainin portions of the structure carried by the ve icle.

An elevator is disposed at each side of the vehicle frame in advance of the body 13 and each of these elevators has its lower end operating .in a receiving hopper which is conveniently positioned to permit an operator tilting a can of ashes to discharge the contents of said can into said hopper. These elevators or conveyers and their supporting frames comprise a superstructure20 carried by the side beams and properly braced to withstand the strain of usage. This superstructure supports an upper cross shaft 21 which is suitably journaled in bearings carried by this superstructure, said shafts having sprockets 22 carried thereon outside of the frame structure. A lower cross shaft 23 is journaled in hangers 24 depending from the frame 10 and the shaft likewise supports the sprockets 25. An endless chain-26 passes about each of the sets of sprockets 22 and 25 and each of these chains has a plurality of buckets 27 secured thereto. The bucket ma be of any desired shape and disposed at suc spaced intervals as to properly remove the refuse deposited in the lower hopper. Agitators'28 are carried by the chains between 4 block 16 on the chassis through which the certain of the buckets to pick up papers and the like and to break up any large lump which may be deposited in the hopper, these agitators being in the form of plates which have tines 29 secured thereto. The lower receptacle comprises a hopper 30 with an inclined bottom 31 to direct the refuse placed in the hopper to the buckets in their scooping action, and a receiving opening 32 in advance of the elevators. The upper wall of this hopper over which the ashes are passed is preferably arranged at an elevation equal to the top of the side beams of the frame 10 so that it will not be necessary for anoperator to lift a can of ashes to any great height. The individual elevator members are provided with hoods 33 which prevent li ht floating particles of dust being blown rom the buckets 27 and these hoods also direct any of the refuse which is not properly deposited in the body 13 back to the lower hopper 30. v

For the operation of this vehicle, it is necessary that driving means be provided for imparting forward or reverse movement to the vehicle proper, for driving the elevators, and when desired, for dumping the body 13. As clearly shown in Fig. 4, 34 indicates the driven shaft which extends from the engine and clutch housing. This shaft has a spur gear 35 secured thereto and extends into the transmission housing 36 in which the usual form of gear mechanism for imparting several speeds and reverse motion to the transmission shaft 37 is included. This transmission shaft leads to the interior of the differential housing 38 in the rear -40 may be slidably mounted on the shaft 41 but so carried by the shaft as to impart rotary movement thereto when this gear is rotated. The usual yoke and lever mechanism may be employed for moving gear 40 in or out of engagement with gear 45.

A cage 46 is slidable upon a shaft 47 and this cage embraces a' driving medium for engagement with the spur gear 35. A gear 48' has a sliding but driving engagement with the shaft 47 and when this gear is slid to engage with the gear 35, the shaft 47 is riven in one direction. A pinion 49 on an arbor 5O isalso positioned to engage with the gear 35 when the cage 46 has been slid in the opposite direction and, when in engagement, the arbor 5O imparts movement to a pinion 51 which also meshes with the said elevators, and gearing carried gear 48. This train of gearing imparts a reverse motion to the shaft 47. This shaft has a screw thread 52 cut thereon which engages in a threaded socket in the fulcrum 53, which is provided with trunnions engaging the channels of beams 10, and carrying links 54 which have their rear ends connected to the brackets 55 secured to the under face of the body 13. When the shaft 47 is rotated in one direction, the screw advances the fulcrum 53 to elevate the body 13 into dumping position and a reverse rotation of this shaft returns the elevating parts to normal position.

In operation, the vehicle is moved along close to the curb so that one or the other of the hoppers 30 will be accessible to opera tors who will pick up the can of ashes and dump the ashes into one or the other of the hoppers 30. The machine is advanced intermittently as in the usual practice with automobile trucks but the elevators will be run continuously and at such speed as to keep the hoppers 30 empty. These elevators will be so disposed as to deposit the elevated refuse into the body of the vehicle and when the pile of ashes in the vehicle has accumulated to such a degree as to interfere with the reception of additional refuse, an implement may be inserted through the opening 18 to push or level the pile so that the body may be filled before necessitating a trip to the dump. If desired, cans may be attached to the elevating cables 26 having greater capacities than the buckets 27 so that these cans may be raised and dumped and then the direction of travel of the chains reversed to again lower the buckets or cans.

In the arrangement of the shaftin and gearing as above described, it is possible to operate the several sets of gears simultaneously or independently as desired and when it is desired to reverse the rotation of the shaft 41, a reversing gear similar to that for the shaft 47 may be employed. 119

It is thoughtthat the features of this invention are shown in view of the foregoing and no limitation is implied in the drawings which are submitted for illustrative purposes only. a

Having thus described this invention, I claim:

1. In an'ash truck, a self-propelled frame,

a dumping body carried by said frame, an elevator comprising a superstructure carried 120 by the frame and inclined rearwardly over said body, cross shafts carried by said superstructure and frame, sprocket wheels mounted on said cross shafts outside of said frame, endless chains carried by said sprocket wheels, elevating bucketsand agitators carried by said chains, a lower receptacle in which the lower end of said elevator operates, dust retaining housin over y said 9 frame for driving said frame, actuating said elevator and dumping said body operable simultaneously or independently.

2. In an ash truck, a vehicle frame, a dumping body carried by said frame, an inclined elevator comprising a superstructure carried by the frame, cross shafts carried by said superstructure and frame, sprocket Wheels mounted on said cross shafts outside of said frame, endless chains engaging said sprocket Wheels, buckets carried by said chains, a receiving compartment in which the lower end of said elevator operates, interchangeable gears for operating the elevator and dumping the body.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

CHARLES E. LE PAGE, 

